C'est La Vie, C'est La Mort
by sephie666
Summary: A shadow begins to lurk in Gotham City, can the Young Justice League find it and bring it down. OC/Robin. Super/Martian Season 1
1. Prologue

**This is the beginning of a story I thought of. Please tell me what you think of it so far. I don't want to continue something that people think of as idiotic and pointless. I know, many people write Mary-Sue stories, but I'd like to add my own strange twist on it. I don't know the pairing for the future, I'll actually writing this as I go along. Also, don't expect me to update quickly. I just enjoy being a bitch like that.**

Darkness fell quietly over the horizon, and the lights of the city began to take on their neon glow. Up above the bustling night life, a lone figure stood stoically on a ledge of one of the many skyscrapers. It watched as the last beams from the sun died out and the stars took their place on their navy stage.  
It grinned and slowly fell forward, the sudden pull of gravity taking it down from it's perch and strategically landing on a fire escape below it. From there it scanned the streets, it's prey in it's sights.  
The lone man walking down the sidewalk didn't notice that he was being watched and continued his trek to his home. It had been a long day, the damn printer had died and his boss had been unfairly cross with him. Now he was going to deal with his wife, no doubt she was going to be angry about his lateness. Damn paperwork.  
The figure moved quickly, taking it's time amongst the shadows, weaving in and out of alleys until it was in one that cleverly intersected the man's path. The alley it had chosen was fairly clean, however it still had a lingering smell of trash and city air. Oh well, it had no ways of changing that. It had no vendetta against the man, in fact it sympathized with him. However, life is hard, and those who are stronger sometimes had no other alternative than to exploit the weak and unsuspecting.  
The train of thought was cut off at the realization that it's prey had come closer. It had little more than a minute to prepare itself. Muscles tensed and it could feel adrenaline begin it's course through it's veins. Just a little closer. Hands clenched in anticipation. Now.  
Arm reached out from the darkness at the man, wrapping themselves around his torso and dragging him into the dirty alleyway. Papers fluttered in the breeze and fell to the ground. A hand was placed over his mouth as he opened it to scream. Now muted and helpless, the man began to panic, his eyes looking wildly around at his attacker.  
Yes, this was what it was like to feel powerful. A shiver ran down the figure's spine at the warmth and life flowing off of the man in it's clutches. He started struggling and tossing his head, but it was no use. The thing that held him was far stronger than a regular human. If it was human at all.  
He felt was a pair of lips on the top of his shoulders where his spine connected to the bones of his neck. And then he felt it. A draining sensation, like the energy of his body was being sucked out by this person. This made him further his attempts at freedom until the fatigue became too much and he gave up. Not long after, he went unconscious.  
The figure slowly set the man down on the gum spattered ground, reassuring itself that he would be found before another criminal of the city had it's turn with him. The man wasn't dead of course, just unconscious, his body would soon recuperate the missing energy. The figure prided itself on being a criminal, not a murderer. Now that it's meal was over, it had to be going.  
At least one single passerby should have noticed the girl walking out of the mysterious alley. That is if anyone had been paying attention to that certain alley, which none were. Humans are quite ignorant of their surroundings of course.  
Not long after a kind, homeless woman digging through the trash found the man and noticed his clean clothing. Such clean clothing didn't belong on a tramp of the streets. The man was rushed to the hospital and found to be completely healthy. Just drained of energy and with an odd circular burn mark on his neck.  
Strangely enough, more cases of unconscious people with these circular burns began pouring in. No one understood what was happening. Was it an illness? Did Gotham City have a new villain? If so, then why didn't he or she take anything from it's victims? Indeed, all the wallets and jewelry found on the unconscious people were accounted for and none were missing. Such odd occurrences were bound to attract the attention of a certain Justice League.  
And that is where our story begins.

**There it is, the prologue. Please tell me whether or not you think this beginning deserves to have an ending. **


	2. Chapter 1

**First chapter people. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the prologue. Please take the time to read and review this one as well. **

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At Mount Justice a message signal came through on the large screen, cutting off the current argument between two young men. One was quite energetic and had been pushing his opinion very vehemently against his counterpart. The other was more sly and had proven his point with snide comments and harsh logic. Both were interrupted in the middle of their bickering.

"Can't you two go an hour without finding something to argue about?", came an exasperated voice as a tall teenager walked into the Mission Room and to the computer. The boy seemed to be of African American descent with pale eyes that sharply looked at the sender of the message. It was from a certain masked hero of Gotham City.

The other members of the Team entered the room and gathered around the computer. "Is it another mission?", the green woman asked. With hair the color of the sun and freckles decorating her forest skin, it was clear the girl wasn't of this world. "I believe so. We could receive it if these two would quit bickering.", the boy called Aqualad replied, looking pointedly at the two offenders. The two young men glared at each other before crossing their arms and taking their place in the crowd. Aqualad clicked on the transmission request.

A new screen popped up and the image of a black cloaked man showed up. A mask covered his eyes while a cowl hid away the rest of his features. Batman looked down at the young heroes.

"We've received intelligence that someone has been terrorizing the citizens of Gotham City. Several victims have been found unconscious, usually in a discrete alley or parking lot. These marks were found on the backs and necks of the victims." A new image came up next to the video. It was of a circular patch of skin on the neck of a woman. The skin was shiny around the circle, while the skin inside was red and irritated.

"Ew, that doesn't look too good.", commented the energetic teenager. Batman looked coldly down at Kid Flash with disapproval.

"No, it doesn't. We have conducted tests that have concluded that this isn't an illness or disease. It appears that the skin was burned. Usually a case like this would be overlooked, however the numbers of this occurring has begun rising. That is where you come in.", the mentor looked at them seriously.

"Aw man, a rookie mission? What are we? Heroes or detectives to you guys?", Kid Flash whined, rubbing his head when a team mate slugged him. Artemis gave him a sharp glance before they turned their attentions back to the screen.

Batman frowned at the boy. "No complaints. The victims were also drained of energy, a few were even close to death. This is a serious mission. When a criminal harms a innocent, that is where we step in. You all are going to be sent on a covert intelligence mission, find what information you can about the person behind this. I'll be sending the locations of where all the victims were found. Hopefully you can use them to predict where they'll strike next. Batman out."

The screen went black, leaving the photos of the burns still on the home page. "I guess we should start preparation for Gotham City?", M'gann asked anonymously. The Team looked at each other and then to their leader. The Atlantian teen nodded, "We leave in an hour. Be ready."

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"Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter, little darling, it feels like years since it's been here. . ." A girl sang softly while she walked down the streets. Seeing a vendor selling hotdogs, she went past it with a small smirk. A blocks down she pulled the stolen bag of hot nuts out of her pocket. Popping one into her mouth, she savored the taste as she chewed slowly.

Life was good. She was free and living in a city that had a booming population. A big population meant thousands of people filled to the brim with life and vivacious energy. Sweet energy that tasted like water to a man dying of thirst. Suddenly the nut in her mouth lost it's deliciousness.

Not good. She shouldn't be thinking about that. At least not while she was in broad daylight and couldn't do a single thing about it. Her latest meals had been quick and she had covered her tracks with efficiency. However, too many strange occurrences would attract unwanted attention. Especially if one were to happen in the day while she was surrounded by people. Yes, it was best to wait until nightfall.

Walking around proved to have its advantages. The pedestrians running around and brushing up against her had no idea what they were doing. Each contact with another person sent a small charge of energy through her body. It would have been so easy for her to grab a hold of one of them and just continue to drink in the light. . .

No, no thinking bad thoughts! Patience is what she needed, good things come to those who wait. And she would wait, after all, sunset was but a couple of hours away. The bustling crowd of people around her would provide enough nourishment for now. She watched as their life forces moved around like little flickers of flames dancing on a burning log. A man accidentally tripped and bumped into her. She grabbed a hold of the connection and took in what little she could before the contact was broken.

"Sorry Miss.", the man mumbled before going on his way. She smirked to his back._ No sir, thank you._

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"Landing on base." M'gann announced as the Bio-Ship touched down. Wally looked around in confusion. "Uh guys, don't you think someone'll notice a large aircraft on top of a skyscraper?"

"Something tells me that they're used to it.", Artemis stated bluntly. Indeed, it probably wasn't the first time something odd occurred in Gotham City.

Aqualad stood up and addressed The Team. "Okay, we'll be taking stations all around the city in the hopes that one of us will catch this unknown person in the act. The information from Batman leads me to think that it will likely happen in the South end of Gotham, since that is where most of the incidents have occurred. However we don't want to eliminate any other possibilities."

He turned to Artemis and Wally. "You two will be stationed in the North, M'gann in the west, Conner and Wolf in the East, and I will be in the South. Robin, I want you to see what you can find from the security cameras that happened to be in the area of the attacks. Is everyone good with the plan?"

A chorus of affirmations rang. Aqualad nodded, "The let's move out. M'gann, form a telepathic link with everyone."

The green woman nodded and everyone was connected. Mission time.

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She reveled in the darkness as it took over. The sun gave a few more rays of light before being blocked by the horizon. Another night for feasting.

Usually she could go for days without feeding, but the amount of people swarming the city was too inviting to refuse. Standing atop one of the many buildings, she scanned the streets, a predator on the hunt. A fairly young looking woman was walking down 5th avenue and towards one of the more crime rated areas of the city. She gave a toothy grin and began laying out her plan of cornering her.

Being a master of stealth had it's advantages. She didn't like to hear her victims screams and having to actually chase after someone was even worse. It made her feel like more of an animal than she already was. It was bad enough that she had to feel their despair and panic at being caught by something unknown. A slight side effect of living off of other's energies was feeling the emotions of the people she feasted upon. Over time she had developed a callous attitude towards her victims.

The woman was turning a corner and heading down a street filled with alleyways. Perfect.

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_Have you picked up on anything yet?,_ Aqualad's voice rang through on the telepathic link.

_Nada_., Came from Kid Flash and Artemis, who were perched on a fire escape overlooking a vast amount of streets in the North.

_Nothing out here., _Superboy reported from the park.

_I haven't come across anything suspicious.,_ M'gann voiced.

Aqualad sighed in defeat. They had been out for two hours without any trace of an attack. Robin had gone through the various security cameras and had found nothing. It appeared that their criminal was quite stealthy and had a knack at not being seen.

Not only that, but The Team was starting to get restless. Wally had already gone through several mental games and had annoyed everyone to a new state of irritability. Even M'gann was starting to get antsy. She had been moving around her end of the city, continuously checking each and every alley for any signs of activity. And still they had nothing.

_I'm picking up something on the South end. A woman is panicking in the second alley on 5th Avenue before 8th Street._ M'gann's voice jolted him from his thoughts. Aqualad answered, _On it. Robin, I'll meet you there._ The Boy Wonder had been scoping things out at the center of the city, and would be the fasted team member to join him at the disturbance.

_On my way.,_ Robin replied. He was currently crouched on a church steeple next to a gargoyle. Leaping off the edge the roof, he did a front flip before landing on the ground below and sprinting down a conjoining alleyway. No one knew these streets better than him and he could probably make it to the location before Aqualad. At the thought of a challenge, he picked up his speed, taking a bird-a-rang from his utility belt as he neared the alley.

He wondered vaguely what he would find in there. Perhaps a mugger taking a woman's purse? Nah, Megan wouldn't alert them to something as small as that. Not while they were on a mission anyway.

He put his back against the wall, and glanced around the corner before leaping around it and holding up his weapon. The sight before him was definitely strange. A girl was holding onto a woman from behind and appeared to have her mouth on the back of the woman's neck. He hesistated for a second before taking a stance and pulling his arm back to launch his bat-a-rang.

"Let her go and step away with your hands up.", he ordered. The girl hadn't even been paying attention to him, but at the sound of his command, she lifted her head and snarled, flashing a set of pointed teeth in his direction. Damn, why did they always have to do things the hard way?

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